Reviews of movies, TV shows, DVD's and more
The Devil-Doll – Lionel Barrymore stars in this classic horror thriller about a Devil’s Island escapee who shrinks murderous slaves and sells them to his victims as dolls.
Suzy is the story of an American showgirl who falls in love with a penniless inventor. He’s mistakenly shot by a German spy, and presumed dead. Fearing for her own life, she flees to Paris, where she meets and falls in love with a World War I French ace pilot. But after her philandering husband is injured in battle, she discovers her first husband isn’t dead after all …
There may be trouble ahead
But while there’s music and moonlight (moonlight and music) and love and romance
Let’s face the music and dance
I’ve been a roaming Romeo
My Juliet have been many
But now my roaming days have gone
Too many irons in the fire
Is worse than not having any
I’ve had my share and from now on
All alone I am yearning to be with you again
For a spark is still burning, it will ever remain
But I’m yearning in vain
The moon is high, the sky is blue
And here am I, but where are you?
Of the nine films Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers completed for RKO Pictures, Follow the Fleet falls short of the top echelon. Coming between series peaks Top Hat and Swing Time, Fleet repeats the mistake (ala Flying Down to Rio and Roberta) of casting Fred and Ginger as the comic couple, while the romantic roles went to Randolph Scott and Harriet Hilliard (before she went on to fame with her husband, Ozzie Nelson, in Ozzie and Harriet).
Fred puts down his top hat to become sailor Bake Baker (yet another of his alliterative screen names), while Ginger plays old flame Sherry Martin. The two are reunited when Fred takes shore leave in San Francisco, and soon their efforts turn to helping Ginger’s sister Connie (Hilliard) land Fred’s shipmate Bilge (Scott). (Look for Lucille Ball and Betty Grable in small roles.)
Too much screen time is spent on Hilliard and Scott, but Fred and Ginger make up for it with plenty of laughs and some classic musical numbers, and Irving Berlin’s score is one of the best of the series, with cunning lyrics and melodies that linger in the memory. Highlights include Fred and Ginger in a dance contest, a Ginger solo tap number, and “I’m Putting All My Eggs in One Basket,” their best comic dance. The piece de resistance is “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” a show within a show in which Fred and Ginger don their customary evening formals. Effortlessly flowing from pantomime to song to dance, this sublime piece of storytelling is one of Fred and Ginger’s defining moments. –David Horiuchi
Of course Linda Stanhope trusts her husband Van. Their marriage is based on love and respect. Who cares if Van’s secretary has the face of an angel and the body of a chorus girl? Who says a blonde bombshell can’t type and take dictation? But people are whispering. And when Linda calls Van’s hotel room late at night during his solo business trip to Havana, guess who answers. Four Golden Era greats – Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Myrna Loy as the romantic triangle and a lanky newcomer named James Stewart as Harlow’s beau – gild this sophisticated comedy-drama that takes a savvy look at men, women and love. Wife versus Secretary: Guess who wins!
In Libeled Lady, Bill Chandler (William Powell ) is one of America’s great anglers, a sports fisherman without peer, doom in waders to the wiliest trout. And that isn’t the only fish story Chandler tells.
Four of Hollywood’s greatest stars – Powell, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy – reel in this whopper of a screwball romantic comedy classic nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. It all starts when society diva Loy slaps newsman Tracy with a libel suit. Tracy enlists fiancée Harlow and down-on-his-luck Powell in a counter maneuver involving a rigged marriage, a phony seduction, a fabulously funny fishing scene, fisticuffs, broken promises and hearts, and, eventually, true love for all.
First, Revolt of the Zombies isn’t a “zombie” movie in the current sense. There are no shambling undead. There are, however, mentally enslaved people enthralled by the villain of the movie — who is not whom you think
In Cambodia in 1937, the villainous Count Mazovia murders a priest, who is burning an incantation and formula to turn men into mentally-controlled slaves. However, it’s been partially burned and is worthless — until …